Dunlop’s Japanese general manager of motorsport, Toshiharu Tanagawa, will be trackside at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 as the company braces for an intense week at Mount Panorama.
Last October’s Great Race saw the largest epidemic of tyre failures in the 50 year history of the event, with tempers flaring as teams fell foul of left-side delaminations seemingly at random.
This year’s move to the Car of the Future rule package has seen the introduction of a larger 18-inch tyre, providing yet more question marks over how the rubber will hold up around the undulating circuit.
Dunlop has responded by arranging Tanagawa’s attendance, which ensures the company’s biggest engineering presence at a V8 Supercars event since it took over the control tyre contract in 2002.
“There is obviously a lot of new things for the teams this year that they haven’t taken to Bathurst before, not just the tyres,” Dunlop’s Australian motorsport manager Kevin Fitzsimons told Speedcafe.com.
“They’re very different to the old cars in terms of how they react to the tyres and so on, and it’ll be a big learning curve for everyone.
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“We have the benefit of having run the prototype car at Bathurst last year, but that car didn’t have a great deal of power, and the teams have developed their cars a fair way away from what that was.
“We decided we wanted a bigger engineering presence this year on the basis that it is a whole new ball game.
“Mr Tanagawa oversees a variety of circuit racing and rallying programs from Japan and will add to the 100 years of collective experience that our regular Australian team has.”
Camber and tyre pressure guidelines for the event have already been sent to the V8 Supercars teams.
Although the recommendations are not mandatory due to the inherit policing difficulties such a move would bring, Fitzsimons says that the teams know the risks of straying beyond the benchmarks.
“This is the first year that we’ve sent out numbers prior to the event,” he said.
“What we’re really trying to make clear is the danger of running very low starting pressures.
“It’s ok for the teams to roll the dice with that stuff, but if they go too far and end up damaging tyres then they’ll know exactly why it’s happened.”
A spate of tyre failures were seen at the Coates Hire Ipswich 360 in August; a situation eventually put down to drivers running over the back of the circuit’s aggressive exit kerbing.
Teams will have nine track sessions prior to Sunday’s race in order to assess their tyre life, although the chase for speed inevitably sees few long runs completed during the build-up.
Each car will have four sets of pre-marked and eight sets of new Dunlop hard compound tyres for the event.
With seven pitstops compulsory in the race, teams will have to carefully manage the allocation of new rubber through qualifying and the 1000km journey.
The Mount Panorama circuit will be resurfaced following this weekend’s event, ensuring another new challenge for the tyre manufacturer and teams in 2014.
